shape interactive

Why develop a fictional culture?

When you’re creating a race of people for your new world, you need a culture to give those people and their way of life some context. The culture helps determine how the characters act, dress, eat, solve problems, among so many other things. You can (and sometimes, should) have multiple cultures in your world, depending on how large your focus area is. Cultures affect each other, but also serve in a narrative sense to draw contrast in-world and to draw parallels to the reader’s world.

So here are some thoughts, big and small, that are meant to help inspire you as you create amazing cultures. (And remember that you’re thinking about the following questions in the context of the general population, not your main character(s).) You can simply answer these questions in short-answer form, or you can write a short story to flesh out one or two or three questions at once. If you do that, submit them to me! I’d love to feature them on the blog.

How old do people believe their race is? How old are they really?

How prevalent are religions to the common person?

What is/are the origin stories of the main religion(s)?

What do most people think should be the highest priority:

biological family?

chosen family?

career?

service/charity (of any kind)?

religion?

entertainment/fun?

nation?

expansion (of nation/culture/influence/understanding)?

How do culturally shared priorities shape interactions?

What is the common greeting? Does it vary by age, class, rank, or sect?

How is gender viewed by the majority? Why?

What are common myths/legends of your people and how heavily do they influence the modern day?

How trustful are people of outsiders?

How welcoming are people, in general, of strangers into their homes?

How well do people of various factions (class, race, religion, etc.) get along in society?

How far has technology advanced, and how has it been implemented into their daily lives?

If magic exists, what do they believe is its origin? Its source?

If there is division between magic/non-magic, how do the two treat each other and why? How long has it been that way?

What sort of relationship do they have with their ruler?

How content is the average person?

How do people make their living and how big a part of their life is their career (if applicable)?

Do they have “weekends” and if so, what sets them apart from “weekdays”?

How do they treat their close friends?

How do they treat their enemies?

How do they handle small conflict, between individuals or small groups?

How do they handle larger conflicts?

How are they prepared for any potential war? Do they have some sort of military or militia in place?

How many wars have they, as a society, fought over the course of their lives/history? How much of an impact does that have on their cultural identity? (i.e. WW2′s impact on patriotism in America, and how it’s yet to go away.)

What virtues do they value in individuals? What virtues do they say they value? If those are different, why?

How do they dress? Does it vary greatly by gender, or not? Is their focus on clothing very practical, religious, sentimental, or simply driven by the latest arbitrary fashion? How do the above answers reflect on the culture on a deeper level?

How do they treat their elderly?

How do they treat their children?

At what age does a baby become a child, a child a young adult, a young adult an adult, an adult an elder?

How much regulation does the day-to-day life of the average citizen entail? Or, how involved is the government in micro affairs?

How are these people seen throughout their known world? How do other cultures view this culture?

THAT THING WHEN KIDS POINT AT YOU YELLING QUESTIONS
WHEN YOU ARE VISIBLY DISABLED

It kinda sucks. It really sucks. I like
kids and I work with kids and I’m totally used to it
and it still sucks. It hurts my feelings.

I didn’t become disabled and get an
instant magical free training in how to teach kids about disability
and diversity. I also didn’t sign up for a delicate unpaid
education-and-outreach job every time I go to the frickin’ grocery
store. (I actually don’t have time for that).

BUT. And this is a big butt.

I am actually learning to love it, this
stupid important unpaid job that I didn’t even get to choose.

I know I know, I have an unfair
advantage because I already thought kids were ridiculous and
hilarious to begin with. And I worked with them before I started
using a wheelchair. But working with kids and having to have the
disability conversation in so many iterations so many times over is
teaching me a whole lot about this whole situation! And it got much
less stressful after I realized this helpful key secret:

kids don’t actually have a problem with
disability.

Especially compared to the adults you
encounter who will or won’t ask about it and will or won’t hire you
or date you or what-have-you, so many kids have absolutely no problem with disability. Unless the media // the
adults around them have gotten to their brains before you, this whole
conversation might be alarmingly simple, quick, and painless:

SCENARIO 1:

“hey why are you on that?” [“on
that” refers to my wheelchair].

(whenever possible I put down what
I’m doing in order to smile and make eye contact for this. It will
probably be less than 20 seconds).

“oh my wheelchair? Great question!
I have a disability that makes my bones crack easily, so it’s safer
and faster for me to use a wheelchair sometimes. It’s just how I
help my body be at its best!”

“oh!”

“cool right?”

“yeah!”

“did you have any other questions?”
[I only throw that in on good days]

“um. nope!”

[kid goes to play]

[exhale]

My advice is to expect Scenario One. All you gotta do to prepare is have a one-sentence explanation of your assistive device / disability that you
feel comfortable with. Kids do not give a shit about your diagnosis, and you don’t need to prove anything to them. All they need from you is a simple,
casual answer.

I * always * explicitly use the word disability
for a few reasons. I used to just casually say “I fractured my leg”
which was also true, but kids learn really early on to feel pity
for someone who has an injury, so they would say things like “ohh I
feel bad for you” or “oh when will you get better” which always made the conversation longer and more uncomfortable. Then I realized
I had a lot of power in shaping their interaction with disability
(and their response to it) in these brief encounters, and also I GET
TO DECIDE HOW I ANSWER! So I revised my answer to frame my injuries
(and my wheels), as a normal, casual part of my life. Feel free to
use my exact wording if it helps you:

“oh my wheelchair? Great question!
I have a disability that (very basic explanation)
so it’s safer and faster for me to use a wheelchair
sometimes. It’s just how I help my body be at its best!”

Okay I studied sociolinguistics in
college so here’s my geeky little break-down:

“oh my wheelchair?” ←
gives a nice nonchalant “oh this old thing” vibe and sends the
message that it’s okay and normal to talk about wheelchairs.

“great question!” ←
teaches the child that disability is not shameful

“I have a disability that
___” ← addresses the taboo right away, deflating any
tension, awkwardness, and curiosity in the rest of the conversation.
Suddenly you have all the power here, since there’s no
secret anymore.

“so it’s safer and faster for
me to use a wheelchair” ← emphasizes the positive attributes
of assistive devices. You could also say “it helps me do
everything I want to do” or “my wheels are faster than my feet”
or whatever you want. Again, simplicity works for you in this.

“It’s just how I help my body
be at its best!” ← hopefully kids are already getting some
messaging about taking care of their bodies: brushing their teeth,
eating a snack, sleeping enough, etc. This line should be relatable
to them and also caps the conversation in a helpful way: it’s almost
like saying “this is just how it is” and creates a sense of gentle, positive closure.

My personal opinion on the matter of disclosure is
that the vast majority of kids don’t care at all about the fancy name
of your disability. I don’t emphasize simplicity because I think kids need to be talked down to, I emphasize simplicity because it keeps the conversation clear, casual, and quick. In the adult world, disclosure is practically
demanded of disabled people: even if they don’t ask, everyone wants
to know what, exactly, is “wrong” with you. So my choice in not
naming my specific disability in these conversations with kids is
conscious and political. Not disclosing my diagnosis keeps our
conversation out of the medical sphere (disabled people are so
over-medicalized anyway) and gives us a chance to connect
human-to-human. Some people feel that sharing a diagnosis will raise
“awareness” for their illness or disability but I’m not sure that awareness is what I
need from kids. I don’t need them to be aware that my bod has wonky
collagen production, I need them to know how to interact with me
respectfully. I’m not adamantly against specific diagnosis
disclosure, (again, YOU GET TO CHOOSE what you say in these
situations!) but I also don’t think it’s necessary or important and I
think more often than not, it derails the conversation. Especially if you already didn’t have time
for this to begin with. Guaranteed, a diagnosis
disclosure will add time to this convo.

Often kids will ask what happened
to you, assuming that you’ve had some kind of accident. I have a
congenital disability, so even when I * have * fractured and had an
‘accident’ and that is why I’m wheeling instead of walking, I usually
just casually say: “oh, nothing happened! Same old me. I have a
disability…” and continue my spiel from there.

They will also ask
what’s wrong with you (which is the hardest to stomach) and I
do the same thing: “oh, nothing’s wrong! I just have a
disability…” etc. If I’m just absolutely not in the mood or if a
kid seems weirdly aggressive (which is almost never the case, but it does happen), I’ll cheerfully say “oh nothing’s wrong, but thank you so
much for asking!” and that usually shuts down the conversation.

Lovelies, I know how fucking painful this is. Ugh it sucks so much. But it does get easier and gentler and sometimes kids say really goofy things that you get to laugh about later. This conversation is yours. You get to do as you please with it. Have fun. If you want, for little ones throw in an afterthought: “plus it gives me magical powers. But don’t tell anyone.” Having someone look at you like you could be legitimately fucking magical might make your day.

Hell, you ARE legitimately fucking magical. Go you for reading this and thinking about this and doing you.

I’m an eclectic witch, more or less. My personal practices are a hodge-podge of things I’ve picked up all over the place, peppered with my own ideas, obsessions, and twists on things. Over time, all that different stuff has simmered and condensed into a thick, pungent stew with a particular flavor of its own. I’ve decided to call this concoction “weirdling witchcraft”.

I’m not entirely sure many other people will like the taste of this particular woo-woo stew, but I’m gonna share it anyway…just in case.

Now, the tough part. Actually defining the thing.

Ah, er…ok.

Weirdling witchcraft is, more or less, the practice of strategically suspending your belief in reality. What the flying fox-nuggets do I mean, you ask? Well, I’ll attempt to tell you.

As humans, our perception of all that surrounds us is very limited, and our understanding of “reality” is little more than a rough framework, hand-holds in the darkness. Through science, we’re able to illuminate little patches, but even light leaves things unseen, and the darkness of the unknown stretches on into infinity.

All that, the unknown, the unknowable, is the stuff of magick. As witches and practitioners of the occult, we are largely differentiated by our varied modes of not only defining it, but perceiving, shaping, and interacting with it.

Weirdling witchcraft, in particular, is about celebrating it.

It’s about living with the viewpoint that nothing is truly mundane. Existence itself is a marvel and a mystery. We move through layers of reality both seen and unseen, all of it tangled together into a greater whole.

To be a weirdling witch is to live amidst and as a part of all that with an open mind, a sense of wonder and a spirit of exploration. To perceive the world as a magickal and alien place and to experience it as best I can, while at the same time maintaining the kind of practicality required to take care of myself within whatever framework I’m currently existing.

If that’s about as clear as mud (or if it just sounds like general occultism), I apologize. However, this is officially the first in what’s going to be a series of posts describing my path and the practices and ideas that define it. Don’t worry, though. I’ll still be posting mostly sigils :P

Saying that giomis is an “abusive” relationship because of the age gap is literally ignoring their canon interactions and their character growth.

Giorno was good to Mista because Mista wanted to feel safer and more confident during missions. He found that safety in Giorno and he trusted the boy so badly that he swore loyalty to him even before he knew Giorno was a rogue. And when they came to know Giorno’s true intentions in the mafia, Mista was ready to place all of his bets on Giorno because he easily recognized how lucky and capable he was.

Mista was good to Giorno because Gio needed reassurance and someone to give him self-confidence. That boy had been casted aside by the rest of the crew and nobody seemed to have patience of including him among them and making him feel like he belonged and could be useful. Mista made Giorno notice how working on a team felt like, and was probably the first person who approached him not out of fear or common goal, but out of genuine trust and companionship. That resonated so hard with Giorno, that he was willing to walk his path of righteousness with him, sharing his dream wih him because he was the first one who Giorno could consider a “true friend”.

They work pretty nicely together and support the shit out of each other during missions. Giorno got better as a person thanks to what he learned with Mista, and Mista was pretty much more confident with his endeavors thanks to his faith on Giorno and how sure he was about Giorno always being there to help him when he needs.

Saying that they have an “abusive” relationship because of their age, is literally ignoring the characters and how much their interactions helped shaping them into better people.

You don’t need to ship it romantically if that whats bugs you. But there’s no doubt that their relationship is pretty damn healthy and that they deserved to be there for each other in the end, above all things.

Most fiction involving classical magic being alongside modern/future technology normally has the mages using spells that harken back to classical fantasy fiction. But, lets face it, a person who grew up around technology would shape their magic around interacting with that technology. (All this assumes that magic isn’t anti-tech, like in the Dresden’verse.)

So, spells in a technological world.

Waterproof: Nothing is more annoying than getting your phone/tablet/whatever wet, ruining it. A simple water warding spell would do wonders. (Thinking on this was what started this whole line of thought.)

RinoBox: And why stop at waterproofing, why not add impact resistance and such too. Could be put on the phone ‘naked’, or on a nominal thing such as those rubber bumper rings to anchor it to the device.

Surgestopper: Cast on an electrical cord, would act as the perfect surge protector with almost instant reaction time. No more lighting eating your computer.

My Parking Spot: The most basic version would allow a magus to put an illusionary car in a parking spot they saw and wanted. A more advanced version could seek out a good spot in advance, ‘occupy’ it, while directing the magus to that spot.

GPS: Yeah, ‘navigation’ spells would almost certainly exist, but this one would mimic the functions and interface of mundane GPS devices, especially useful to those who are already familiar with such devices. Could tap directly into the GPS/data networks, or be purely magical getting the info from supernatural sources.

Wrong Car Officer: Be it making the ultimate getaway vehicle, or simply avoiding traffic tickets, ways to disguise a vehicle (or at least disguise the plates) would be simple. Could be fun, if law enforcement was at least nominally aware of ‘real’ magic, if law enforcement had ways to deal with that.

Air Outlet: Nowhere to plug in? Well, just cast this spell, plug your cord into an invisible outlet, and just the right voltage/amperage is right there. Probably too much effort to do it 24/7, but could be great for recharching devices, running your fridge during a power outage, jumping off a car without risking a backsurge into your own vehicle…

Papers Please: Cast on a person, the magus can read what’s written on any card and such carried by the target, such as IDs, credit cards, etc. The knowledge of such abilities could prompt faster development of things like chipped cards or barcodes, which aren’t translated.

Hello. Do you have any points for someone who might be struggling to write Kara? Maybe five base points that are the most important to her personality? I'm struggling but I don't know who to ask for advice. Most of writers I know don't write from her perspective. You don't have to break out power point it can be short. ;)

(Let it be known that there was an immense internal struggle to not immediately create a powerpoint.)

I don’t know if I have five base points, but I can give you a quick (okay, not so quick ((okay, not quick at all))) rundown of how I approach her character.

Core Beliefs

For every character I write, I try to first figure out what their Core Beliefs (harmful ideas a person has about themselves that inform their perception of reality and thus their decisions) are. You can find examples for Core Beliefs here.

For instance, Lena’s Core Belief is likely of Defectiveness (Applicable example thought: “I am inherently a bad person”) and/or Unlovability (ex. “I am incapable of being loved”). She may believe that she is unlovable because she is defective.

Alex’s is likely Responsibility (ex. “I have to do everything perfectly.”)

Kara has the Core Beliefs of Abandonment (ex. “The people I love will leave me”) and Responsibility (ex. “I am responsible for everyone and everything.”).

These things shape the way Kara interacts with the world.

Writing-wise, if you need Kara to do something somewhat irrational for plot, your best bet is to see if there’s a way to connect it to these beliefs.

Need Kara to freak out at someone and cause a fight, but can’t figure out a logical way she’d do that? Have her think that

Need Kara to hide that something is wrong with her even though she’s generally an open person? Have her recognize that the people around her are burdened and feel respo

Abandonment

This is why Kara is so tragic of a character. She lost everything as a child, she was left entirely alone, with nothing that she loved remaining. Even the baby she was asked to protect, Kal, was Clark now. A stranger to her.

And now, she lives out her life knowing that—because of the abilities the yellow sun gives her—she’ll outlive everyone she loves. Unless she dies prematurely, she’ll be left alone, again.

Like all Core Beliefs, this trait presents in many different ways.

In season 3, Kara is deep within the throws of her abandonment issues. She’s distancing herself from everything that she loves about Earth (Note—everything other than her Responsibility) because she thinks, “If I love something or someone, I will be abandoned again.”

This is because she was abandoned again in a big way, by someone who reminded her of the life she would have had on Krypton. And she lost him in a way that directly mirrored her core abandonment event—fleeing a planet in a pod, to never see their loved ones again. (Of course, this time, she wasn’t the one to leave. And yet she was still left alone.)

So this is how she reacts when her Core Belief of Abandonment is triggered in an extreme way. This is her at the end of her rope.

It’s not entirely unprecedented (an example of a similar reaction is Kara dumping Adam in season one because she decided that she doesn’t get to have that kind of relationship. She dumped him so she’d never have to lose him) but on an everyday basis, she’s not usually one to push people away when she fears losing them.

The way she copes with those feelings isn’t always healthy, but it’s also not always quite as self-destructive.

She’s often a fixer by nature, a quality you can see also reflected with her Responsibility Core Belief (like when she sees Cat struggling to write Adam a letter and just… takes it upon herself to forge a letter and reunite them, entirely overstepping boundaries).

You can see this in how difficult it was for Kara to refrain from talking to Winn when he was upset that she rejected him. You can see this in how stressed she was at the prospect of waiting for the public’s minds to change after the Red K incident, rather than finding a tangible solution.

When a relationship isn’t right, Kara is most comfortable with talking it out or taking steps to rectify it.

With Alex, we’ve seen Kara be more of a sulker than a fixer, I think because she fears being more of a burden. This is her Responsibility Core Belief playing at odds with her Abandonment Core Belief.

Responsibility

Kara’s last words to her mother, after Alura told her that she’d travel to Earth to look after her baby cousin and that she’d have great powers and do extraordinary things there, were, “I won’t fail Kal-El or you.”

Her last words were a promise to protect Kal-El and to use her powers to be extraordinary—something she obviously defines to mean helping the Earth. She already failed to protect Kal-El, so her only shot at keeping her promise is to help the Earth. This

(Also worth noting, I think it’d be a mistake to believe that the only reason Kara is a hero or helps people is because she doesn’t want to fail her mother. I think she’d do the same kind of things if she’d lived a full life on Krypton. But the aspect of it that is a compulsion—

“I can’t help it. When someone needs help, I’ll help them”

—and the aspect of it that warps her worldview negatively—

“This is the reason my mother and father sent me to Earth.”

“They wanted you to live.”

“No, it’s more than that.”

—stems from this event.)

First, notice how Kara’s feelings of Responsibility present within her differently than Alex’s.

This may connect to their differing world views. Kara has an internal locus of control (“I make things happen”), and Alex has somewhat more of an external-leaning locus of control (“things just happen”).

Alex doesn’t believe that she can change everything around her, so therefore she’s not responsible for everything around her.

Kara, ever the optimist, believes that she can do anything, change anything, if she just tries hard enough/is good enough.

Both of them feel responsible for what they can control, but how much they can control, they have different ideas of.

This is why Alex needs her life, work, and Kara’s life to be perfect. Those are the things she’s been tasked with controlling. But she’s not going to sweat it if some rando enemy doesn’t redeem themselves, because it’s outside of her control.

As for Kara, she needs to save everyone, because she thinks that she can save everyone. But she’s also generally better at letting people take care of her than Alex is, something having a loving adoptive family and a birth family/birth culture that values togetherness helped her internalize.

But that doesn’t prevent her from feeling guilt about being a burden from time to time.

Abandonment vs Responsibility

Sometimes these Core Beliefs compliment each other, sometimes they are at odds.

An example of them complimenting each other is an instance of Kara feeling that if she doesn’t save someone (Responsibility) she’ll lose them (Abandonment).

An example of the beliefs being at odds is when she has to choose between losing someone or Doing the Right Thing.

As we can see when Kara expels Mon-El from the planet to save the Earth, Responsibility wins out.

Generally, if Kara has to decide between her responsibility to do the right thing and the possibility of losing someone, she’ll chose doing the right thing.

You might see her choose otherwise—such as when she chooses keeping her secret from Lena to preserve their relationship, knowing that she’d want to know—but I’d argue that she thinks the harm from doing the wrong thing™ is avoidable.

If Kara had to make a choice between for-sure hurting Lena at some point but maintaining their relationship and telling Lena but risking losing her, I think she’d choose to tell her.

Alura let Krypton die because she wasn’t willing to compromise her values (feeling a responsibility to Do The Right Thing, as opposed to ‘selfishly’ protecting those she loves). From Kara’s point of view, she even let Kara go to Earth on her own because she felt she needed to die with Krypton. She chose duty over love.

Astra, on the other hand, was willing to sacrifice her ideals to save the people she loved (and she certainly phrased it in such a way that it was clearly about saving Kara and her loved ones).

Kara struggles with her mother and aunt’s choices, but ultimately leans toward agreeing with Alura—that her responsibility to do the right thing trumps her own feelings for what she wants in her life.

Even when she considers Astra’s point of view, it’s within the context of “But was she right?”

Kara often puts what she wants within the context of morality (because she’s a Hero™ and has a responsibility to be Good) in order to make a decision.

Cat is a great mentor for Kara, because she allows her to see that sometimes what Kara thinks is the selfish answer is also the right thing to do.

For instance, Cat convinces Kara that it’s okay to try to save her friends and risk losing an opportunity to ensure the safety of the planet, not by appealing to Kara’s love for them or by telling her that it’s okay to be selfish sometimes, but by making an argument for the morality of protecting her friends. She convinces her that love is a value, something to protect, and that it’s Right to choose it.

If Kara hadn’t been given an argument that suggested that it was her responsibility as a hero to protect love as a value, her fear of losing her loved ones would not have been enough to make her risk the safety of the world.

Also something to remember: sometimes her need to save everyone can hinder her actual ability to save everyone. (Such as when she threatened the fate of Earth by stalling the destruction of the Daxamite ship so that she could try to save Rhea’s soul for the 100th time.)

This ties back into her external locus of control. She really believes that she can do it, change everyone. It’s a blessing and a curse.

Her sheer willpower to create change creates a surprising amount of success. She seems to win more than she loses in this regard. But if she does lose, and she is capable of losing in a big way.

Other Qualities

On the other side of the coin that has Kara’s belief that she can change everyone is her belief that everyone is changeable. “She’s been here 12 years, and still thinks deep down everyone is as good as she is.”

She’s optimistic as hell about most things, but some days it’s a choice more than an instinct.

She’s a naturally “sunny” person in general, but sometimes it’s more work than she lets on.

Her difficulty lying seems to stem from how open she is instinctually. Most of her slip-ups are because she straight-up forgets that she has to keep some things to herself.

If she is consciously trying to lie, however, she’s actually rather good (see: her fooling Mr. Mxyzptlk and Mon-El). It’s when Kara isn’t thinking about keeping a secret, or when she has to lie on the spot, where she has trouble.

Of course, this does not apply to her ability to seem happy. That fake smile reaches her eyes, yo.

But there is a question of if this is actually Kara feeling one way and making her face tell a different story, or if there’s a part of it that’s her being a pro at regulating her emotions on the spot.

I mean, suppressing trauma and culture shock and an inability to control what your body at 13 so that you’re not carted off to a government facility and experimented on will force a girl to learn how to keep herself from freaking out in public pretty quickly.

I think the route that Kara took, to handle it all, was to be really excited about the little positives. Things like birds and ice cream and potstickers and friends and daily life became so fulfilling for Kara because they had to be. And I think it’s often a coping mechanism, even for social situations.

But I also think it’d be a mistake to consider her brightness ingenuine. It’s real, it’s just also work.

Kara also seems, to me, to be kinda behind everyone else in a lot of ways. She’s just having her first real friendships, because she’s only just able to reveal her whole self to people. She also just had her first real romantic relationship, at 26.

So if it’s not something we’ve already seen her deal with regarding relationships, a safe bet is to assume that she’s a little clumsy about it.

That is, unless it concerns emotional maturity. She’s supernaturally good at dealing with people’s emotions, if in a way that cuts past one’s expectations for normal behavior.

But that doesn’t mean that she’s necessarily great at reading people’s emotions. At least romantically, she’s been shown to not be great at guessing how people feel, unless she really knows them.

If you’re writing early season one Kara, her view of her parents is childishly positive. “My mother was the best woman who ever lived.”

So if you address anything about Krypton, feel free to have her romanticize the hell out of it.

If it’s post-the disillusionment of her view of her parents, there’s a certain amount of bitterness in how she views them, though I’m not sure if it’d extend to the other aspects of Krypton.

Quick quirks:

Off the top of my head,

—Nervous laughter, but don’t let it go on for too too long. She’s not that bad.

—The Crinkle™ (brow furrow) when lying, in a ‘fake confusion about what they’re talking about’ kind of way.

—The Brow Furrow Of Sympathy, when she’s worried about someone.

—She’s neat and organized. People sometimes forget this.

—When she’s talking about Krypton or loss, she’s still and serene.

—Anger!!! Very very rarely directed at her loved ones (not completely out of character for her to blow up after a long time, but likely followed by an apology immediately after, even if she’s right), but this doesn’t mean she won’t hit her enemies a little harder that day.

(This also doesn’t mean you should have her almost murder someone because she’s angry. Even if someone almost died because of an enemy. I immediately exit fics that have this occur. Her morals always come first, even before the people she loves. It’s at the core of her character and not something she’d forget because she’s emotional. She probably wouldn’t even think of killing as an option to begin with.

If you really want this to happen, just Red K it, or have some other mind-altering thing happen to her.)

—Her Supergirl personality isn’t as different to her Kara Danvers personality as Superman’s is to Clark. She has a whole Confidence thing, and sometimes does her whole deeper-voice put-on business mode, but she’s a very happy and excited hero. Superman has a kind of Cool and Kind feel to him, but Supergirl is a Happy and Respectable Nerd.

—Determined™. Reporting and otherwise. It can sneak up on people, because you wouldn’t expect her to be.

—Has mean thoughts like everyone else but tries harder than most to challenge them

The Urchin Softlight by Molo Studio

The Vancouver based Molo Studio is very experienced when it comes to designs with foldable or honeycomb structured materials, as this video of their latest creation shows. The Urchin Softlight called floor lamp invites for a playful interaction to shape the lamp. It is produced with cold or warm white light.

Askssent to my main and answered here. Theme - social life/architecture/etc. of Elsewhere University.

cracksandcraters said: what about
brother/sister/otherhoods of more arcane nature? seems it would be a fertile
ground for secret societies, magic circles, and dark cabals to do their
recruiting. or do the kind ones not brook such organizations poaching on their
territory?

Frankly the Gentry don’t really give a damn about anything
that doesn’t involve them; there’s the usual assortment of weird student shit.
In terms of outside societies recruiting – I think they’d also have about the
amount of success they’d have on any other campus, which is to say it’s a mob
of disaffected millennial who’re trying desperately to graduate with minimum
debt and joke about wanting to die a lot. Success would be limited.

harbringerofdoom said: In terms of Elsewhere University, do students
sometimes come with dormant magic in their blood that is brought out either by
being in the place or one of the Gentry playing around. Like “oops, it
turns out you have some werewolf way back in your bloodline, time to mark the full
moon on your calendar” if so, is there a club/support group for the poor
students who are now more magical than when they started school?

Yeah the Elsewhere really tends to bring any latent
weirdness to the surface! The unofficial student group for people trying to
deal with this shit calls itself the Mallwalking Club in an effort to keep
outsiders from joining; it’s strictly word of mouth and you’ve got to be
vouched for. It’s also not for people who wind up fae-touched through their own
doing; it’s for ‘legacy’ students who are discovering that somewhere up the
family tree someone wasn’t entirely honest about who the co-parent was.

whenflowersfade said: In regards
to the ‘annual events vs the fair folk’ thing, imagine a Jail'n'Bail happening.
Some people would not come back.

Hahaha I had to look that up and I’ve
got no idea how that would translate my guy

valravna said: Honestly I love the idea
of Elsewhere University. Is it considered fae realm or human realm though?
Since it technically IS called Elsewhere Uni, and that is what you named the
Faen realm. Is it like a gateway of sorts? A place where the veil, so to speak,
is thin and the pull of the moon strong?

It’s both – a place where two distinct
locations in the real world and the Elsewhere mesh together (not without
issues, hence the places where space is weird). The Elsewhere bleeding through
to the real world gives Elsewhere U it’s unreality; the real world seeping into
the Elsewhere means that Fair Folk around the campus find themselves following
certain belief-shaped patterns of interactions and rules with more rigidity
than they are used to in the Deep Else.

A note on the name – When it was
founded, it was under the last name of the old 1800s guy who founded it; it
wasn’t named Elsewhere University right off the bat because at the time it was
a perfectly normal school. (And more informally, I called it Elsewhere
University bc it sounded cool and I didn’t think it would get this big; I’ve
since been informed that without a grad program it is in fact a college, but
it’s a bit late to change it now.) Still, someone brought up an interesting
point (and one day I’ll find that ask again!) – if true names have power, what
could you do with the true name of the entire school?

ridafi14 said: You mention in the comic
that there are places where time is Different. But what about times where
places are distorted ? EU students give themselves plenty of time to get where
they’re going. Especially at dawn or dusk. It might just be tired eyes, but
sometimes, after dark, the main hall of the library seems to stretch on at
least ten times as long as it should, and some students swear that they’ve
walked out the door from a noon lecture and onto a part of campus nowhere near
the classroom.

Happens upsettingly often.

Anon
said: What’s the librarian like? Have they seen the most wierd stuff or are
they completely oblivious to it all?

The Librarians aren’t Gentry, but they
aren’t human (anymore?) either. As far as anyone can tell they don’t really
exist beyond the limits of the Library. They’re more or less entirely neutral
forces, so long as you’re quite and don’t hurt the books. They don’t engage in
the favortrade. They’re not quite people at all, really; they’re something
less, or something more. Or just Other, perhaps. If you ask them politely they
will tell you exactly how much time one hour in the Deep Library costs you in
the real world, depending on how far you’ve gone. This is tremendously useful
if you don’t want to guess wrong and miss a week of realtime.

Anon said: Whats wierd about knowing the librarians by name

For starters, they don’t seem to have them.

Anon said: Do
you think people as Elsewhere University have ways of secretly communicating
that the fairies don’t understand so they can do things like conspire against
them without fear? What do you think the fairies would do if they found about
said way of communication?

I’m so damn sick of the tired old phrase: “what two consenting adults do in the bedroom is none of my business!!!”

Why are we pretending that “the bedroom” is some mythical land where no information or experiences go in or out. Those two consenting adults are walking into that room with a lifetime of experiences each. They’re walking out with a new experience to add to the list. It’s experience that shape our interactions with others. It’s through experience that we understand the world. When you come out of that room, you carry your experiences with you.

If what you do in the bedroom affects how you treat women in daily life, it becomes my business. It’s every woman’s business. Plain and simple.

It’s the first time you are hearing about Christian craft and it seems so foreign to you. How can such contradictory things be part of a worship, you ask. How can you be a God-fearing Christian and a witch?

What is witchcraft?

Witchcraft is a practice that can include shaping energy and interacting with the spiritual world. No witch uses witchcraft in exactly the same way. Some use it for healing, some for divination, some for cursing, etc. Many use it to worship their deities and cultivate a relationship with them, but not all. Some are secular and do not work with deities. Some have relations with deities but do not incorporate them into their craft. A witch’s spirituality is not intrinsically tied to their craft. Alternatively, witchcraft is not a religion, but a practice. It can be an expression of a religion, but it is by nature non-religious.

What does the Bible say about Witchcraft?

I am a green witch. That means I use creation, particularly plants, in order to perform my spells. Green witches use the energy stored within creation in order to create effects.

We know God has invested power in creation because of the story of Cain and Abel. It is the ground that seems to convict Cain for his crimes. Before Cain killed his brother, the ground gave him strength.

And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

-Gen 4:10-12

Consider also that if humans do not worship God creation must cry out to Him.

But he answered them, “I tell you that if they keep quiet, the stones will shout!”

-Luke 19:40

The power is there. Is it wrong to learn to use it? On the contrary, I find it to be an interesting way to study God. By knowing His creation, I come to know Him better.

Also note that when Jesus was confronted with magick (albeit, religious magick) he did nothing to condemn it. In the story of the healing at the pool Jesus heals a man who is waiting at a magick pool. Whenever the water was stirred it was supposed to be because an angel came and touched it. Whoever jumped into the pool first was supposed to be healed. (I’m assuming it worked, at least in part, for all of these people to be waiting so eagerly for their chance to jump in. The man in question had waited there for a long time and had missed many chances because he couldn’t move.)

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the stirring of the water; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.

-John 5:2-4

If Jesus didn’t have an issue, then maybe we shouldn’t. I think Christian witches need to be judicious in what they practice. I think baneful magick is iffy at best. Jesus wasn’t baneful, so neither should we be. That being said, bindings and curses do not have to be baneful.

You can read more about my personal path on my FAQ. You can find book suggestions on my Books and Resources page.

What about Christopaganism?

That really isn’t my area of expertise. The Bible is clear that there are other spiritual forces in the world and God Himself refers to them as gods!

For that night, I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt; I am Adonai.

-Exodus 12:12

Do they exist? Yes! Should you have a relation with them and how should you go about balancing your time spent with each deity? You would have to ask a Christopagan yourself.

It’s important to note that not all Christopagans are witches. Not all Christopagans work with other pantheons either, some preferring to work within the Abrahamic faith. Please do not assume anything and approach them respectfully.

Should I be a Christian witch?

I don’t know, because I do not know your relationship with God or the core motivations you have for pursuing craft. Being a Christian witch is about using craft to express your relationship with God. It is to help you draw closer to Him by experiencing Him through magick. It can also cause you to be an asset to other Christians and to this world. You can work magick for those in need.

You can be a Christian and a witch without being a Christian witch as well. You would simply be a practitioner who does not incorporate God into your magick. If you do work with other deities, it will be important that you keep a strict balance and healthy understanding of who these forces are to you in your magick. It will be a difficult road to navigate f you are trusting other forces for your power yet truly putting your faith in God, and perhaps impossible for you without falling into temptation.

Healthy Christian Craft is an article I wrote explaining some common ways in which craft can become unhealthy for a Christian. Remember, this path has as many temptations as any other, but the Christian community offers much less support than with other forms of worship. You will have to constantly be realigning your will with God’s will so that you will not fall into sin. You may also want to follow my meditations and work through them in order to come to a conclusion. This is a decision that takes a lot of reflection and soul searching. Christian witchcraft should not be approached lightly.

If you feel bad about your gallery not being diverse because you draw pokemon comics…

consider that in your comics you are drawing panels upon panels of landscapes of forests or beaches or prairies, mountains, caves, cities, interiors, furniture, different perspectives, people of all sizes and shapes and colors interacting together, animals, lighting, textures, things in motion, and various elements.

Just because its a pokemon comic doesn’t mean that you don’t have a diverse gallery in a page.

Introverted Thinking (Ti): Will is an extremely rational person. He loves to analyze things and figure out how things work. He excels in this extremely well, able to do so in a minute’s notice. He spends days cooped up in his house by himself, thinking, trying to understand something more clearly. He is at heart, an analyst, not fit for thinking about how to get from Point A to Point B, but for understanding.

Extroverted Intuition (Ne): Will is a very curious person. He finds comfort in learning new things, shown through his vast knowledge of history, science, mathematics, etc. He loves to discover. He is very quick-witted, always able to debate or throw a snappy remark at someone. He also has a problem working for big corporations, preferring more freedom in what he does, respecting originality as well.

Introverted Sensing (Si): Will is very stuck in his ways and troubled by his past. He likes the way his life is, as its simplicity allows him to think freely about what makes him curious. He has trouble letting go of his routine to do something more, meaningful. His past has also had a very big affect on who he is, and whether he knows it or not, it shapes how he interacts with people, and what he expects of them.

Extroverted Feeling (Fe): Will has almost no understanding of his or anyone else’s emotions. He does not care if he offends anyone or hurts one’s feelings, he’s extremely detached emotionally. For example, when he mocks Sean’s lost wife, or when he tells Skylar he doesn’t love her. He’s not able to open up about his emotions or confront them either.

Note: Most say ENTP because he’s very sarcastic, sly, and seemingly comfortable around people, but the reason I say INTP, is because is Si is not inferior. He’s very good at remembering facts and details, influenced heavily by the past, and likes his steady routine, the way he likes things. His Fe is also very low, as stated before.

Why must women pray behind men? Why is it that in Pakistan women have the worst place to pray when we need to pray in public and/or in the masjid? And also, why must men and women be separate in public? Isn't that inconvenient? What is the wisdom behind all of this?

The wisdom in women praying behind men, which is the same as the wisdom in women wearing non-revealing clothes, is to take sexuality out of public interactions, so that people can get on with their lives and do what needs to be done without male-female sexual dynamics becoming a factor.

Men are designed to find women far more physically interesting than women are designed to find men. What this means is that having the women in front of the men at the mosque will cause more distraction, on the whole, than having the men in front of the women. Since the goal is to focus on God at the mosque, the logical thing to do is to not have the women in men’s sight. Since women do not find men particularly physically interesting, in general it doesn’t do any harm to have the men within the women’s sight.

Some will say it is men’s duty not to look at women lustfully, women shouldn’t have to dress a certain way or sit in a certain place just so that men wouldn’t be distracted by them. Islam deals with the issue on both ends, it asks both sexes not to look at one another lustfully, and it asks women to dress modestly so that if men do look, they do not see much to look at

At the mosque, it adds an extra degree of conscientiousness to have the women pray behind the men, to make lustful glances even less likely, so that proper respect for God is shown at His house.

We are all God’s servants and it behooves us to organize our public spaces in the way that is most likely to please Him. If having the women pray behind the men is more conducive to proper respect for God, and less distracting on the whole, than having the men pray behind the women, then it logically follows that it is best for the women to pray behind the men. The goal is not some power play or show of authority by the men, the goal is to show God proper respect, with both sexes being His lowly servants wanting to please Him.

As for why men and women can’t pray mixed like at church services, it is again because it adds an unnecessary gender dynamic to the act of praying at the mosque, which is unnecessary and not something God wants to be present in His house. Most of us are capable of praying alongside the opposite sex without any issue. But it is better not to mix, and since we want to please God, we do what is better. Amish Christians do the same, with the men and women sitting separately at church.

About separation in other public places, the point again is for public interactions to be civilized and free from lust. Islam has no issue with men and women interacting in public, it only wants to give the best shape to these interactions by removing potentially harmful dynamics. Each Islamic culture has its own way of trying to achieve this. Some cultures take the separation of men and women too far, and others have sensible policies that do not lead to inconvenience. Much of it is cultural tradition, there are no rules regarding separation of men and women in public in the Quran, for example.

I am sorry to hear that women do not have good places to pray in public in Pakistan. This could be a carryover from the past, where women venturing outside was far less common than now, so that there wasn’t much demand for better accommodations for women. Hopefully this will get better with time. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, the malls have large and well-maintained spaces for women to pray.

one of the best things i ever did for myself was to stop self-deprecating jokes, jokes that relied on the presence of negativity to land, jokes that require suffering to be understood… to make jokes that are corny & uplifting instead, to spread positivity with these jokes and to my friends and in my life.

never will i ever make another joke about my death unless i am consciously thinking about how i want to be alive instead. dramatically asking to end my suffering when i drop a plate of food is only funny to me when the humor is in the fact that i don’t feel this way anymore, that i can smile and know that the root of it isn’t a desperate need to really be done, but dramatizing the averages of life and move on from it the ways i could never do growing up.

it’s so much better, it feels so much cleaner, it feels good and i feel better about myself. we really underestimate how our humor shapes our mindsets for the future and shapes how we interact and think of ourselves. wallowing in the negativity instead of capitalizing on the positivity is so counter-productive to acknowledging the depths of your issues and to eventually pulling yourself out of that hole. the world can be very bright, but you have to keep opening your eyes. it’s hard at first but it’s so rewarding once you can finally see the colors of the world and not just a painfully bright light.

I’m afraid I’m really not qualified to answer this, on the grounds of my own ignorance. The only real thing I can say is that as with any number of other cultures on campus, the beliefs and traditions a student carries with them shape their interactions with the Elsewhere.